thagandizzle

So... A lot has happened, y'all! I'm sorry I haven't updated, but I've been feeling pretty wrung out for a while.

The temp assignment I was doing wasn't super great? Like, it seemed fine! But once I got on the floor and started taking calls at the call center, I was doing between 55-60 calls per day of, like, active and involved customer service with zero downtime at all. I also learned that the company I was working for doesn't let employees use the restroom outside of their scheduled break and lunchtimes unless the employee clocks out while they're away from the computer. Y'all... I am a thirty-four year old woman. If I want to take a piss on the company dime, you can bet your ass that's exactly what I am going to do, you know? So, I was looking for a way out ASAP. The money and the location were great, the people I was working with were all really nice and pleasant to interact with, the job itself was the pits.

Then, out of nowhere, an old co-worker messaged me and asked if I wanted to work with her again. I'd left this company after transferring departments and I had a really bad and stressful experience after my transfer. Long story short, J was having some really bad emotional problems at that time and after trying to work with the department head and getting nowhere, raising my concerns with the former owner of the company, and finally getting denied a transfer back to my old department, I had to make a decision. I ended up with the choice between between the mental health of me and my wife or this job that couldn't meet me halfway, so the job went.

However, the company has had some MAJOR changes. The old department head and former owner have been ousted and a lot of the problems that were endemic to the company have been resolved. So, I went back to the original department I'd worked in. I've only been there for two days, but it's already been a pretty restorative transition.

Plus, it's a permanent job. The new branch manager offered a hefty pay increase from what I was earning last time I was there (which was a whole other problem, in and of itself. Two promotions and zero raises! Woo!) and I'm guaranteed annual raises.

So there's that! A lot of moving and shaking! J's trip to Baltimore went well, except for an evening she spent with her parents where they harassed her about going to graduate school (which she's not interested in) and us buying a house (which would be nice, but we live in Seattle and aren't bazillionaires.) Other than me changing jobs like it's going out of style, life has pretty much plodded along. Because of how stressful that temp job was, I haven't been doing too much art. Here's a little Dragonair I did with Ohuhu markers!


Print available via Deviantart

...But a sexy Edwardian! The sharpest-eyed and keenest of memory among you might recognize her face--I drew her on my sexy Victorians/Edwardians page when I did the 100 Heads Challenge. I love her. I don't know who she is or where she was from, but I have a pretty damn hard history crush on her. Her beautiful face! Her impeccable riding clothes! THAT POSE!!! *swoon*

Click to enlarge


As always, print available via DeviantArt

I had never thought that pastel pencil would take over my love of traditional graphite pencils, but here we are!

I didn't end up getting either of the job offers and J is suspicious that something might be going on with one of my references. I don't know who, though... Everyone I list is someone that I know, like, and trust and who offered to be used AS a reference. I never left a job having been decided as un-rehireable by HR... Not gonna lie, the thought had absolutely crossed my mind, but I can't imagine that it's the case. But, like, one of the jobs was part time in a pizza place call center. I am ABSOLUTELY qualified, the interview went great, and I was genuinely enthusiastic about a--let's be honest--less-than ideal position. My availability seemed basically in line with what they needed. Maybe I wanted more hours than they could reasonably offer? I don't know... It all seems weird. I'm sure we're both overthinking it.

The other job I knew I'd lost after I told who I found out later was the CEO that my experience at Amazon had been weird and then, right after I learned the interviewer I'd met with was the CEO, learned he had been in upper level leadership at Amazon before moving on to making his own company. So, you know, oops! Amazon was SUPER weird, though, and I'm not gonna lie about it. Either way, I've got the temp position lined up so I'm not completely freaking out anymore. But it still seems really weird to both of us that I had all these interviews that all seemed to go really well and didn't get any actual job offers over the last seven months. To be fair, I definitely was interviewing for slightly more involved work than I had done in the past, but fuck, man... I got a fucking promotion during interviews when I was interviewing for Goodwill. I don't know... Again, I'm sure J and I are both overthinking it because that's a thing we do, but it's still pretty weird.

My mom always tells me that, more than anyone else she knows, I go into a situation smelling like shit and come up smelling like roses. Always, it seems like right when things are at their worst and I'm at my lowest, some kind of Good Luck Dispenser is triggered and I end up coming out not just ok, but actively well. I've chalked this up largely to my attitude about things--generally, when things are bad and I get despondent, I am so overwhelmingly happy about any good thing happening that ok news suddenly seems like the best news.

That's not what's happening here. I just filed my last week of unemployment benefits. There is no option to extend. In the few days since that happened, I have already booked a temp assignment (which sounds legit amazing and is in my neighborhood and has great pay) and I am looking down the barrel at possibly two job offers. I don't want to say I've already got them, since I still have another interview to go for one of the positions. But they shuffled a bunch of schedules around without my prompting so they could meet with me earlier in the week, so they're definitely keen.

Months, y'all. Months! Of nothing! WEEKS would go by without a peep from anyone! And now? Now, I'm overwhelmed for the exact opposite reason! I didn't do anything different, you know? The Good Luck Dispenser lever was just, like, switched on!

AND I STILL HAVE AN ART COMMISSION I NEED TO WORK ON.

When it rains it pours, I get it, but can I order a light drizzle, please? I'd be fine smelling faintly of plain old grass--I don't need roses. I'm absolutely beyond grateful, don't get me wrong! But I've just done a whiplash-inducing swerve from panicked about not having any work prospects and fretting about making rent to having to CHOOSE the most ideal work prospect and it's just... It's an awful lot. So I'm getting pizza and I'm watching Victorian Farm.

I went out on Monday and got signed up again with the temp agency that I worked with before my last full-time job. They're super nice and did their best to get me decent placements, so here's hoping that something comes of it. I'm running to the end of my unemployment and have hit a lot of dead ends. Also, I want money. And to not be in my apartment. So, if temping is going to save me from having to fall back on traditional retail, then temping is what I shall do. The other problem I'm running into is that a lot of places have outsourced their offices to places outside of Seattle and since I bus, it's just not reasonable for me to take a position in Kent or Everett.

If I do have to start looking at traditional retail, though, then that's just how it'll be. I don't know if my back can take it, but I really do want to find SOMETHING at this point. Fingers crossed I'll find something that I actually want/like!

I did paint a Rowlet, though! I like him, but not as much as I liked my Magikarp painting. I think I just really loved the bright colors of Magikarp and I do wish I'd decided on a slightly more dynamic pose for Rowlet. I just wanted him to be a happy orb boy, so I went with my gut. I also wish I had better instincts for cuteness. I think if I'd made him a little wider and squashier, maybe moved his feet apart more, he'd be a lot cuter. I just tend toward elongating things!

Click to enlarge:


Print available via Deviantart

I am the Pokemon (and Pikachu, specifically) Master! I have defeated the Elite Four in Pokemon Let's Go: Pikachu and beat the scary Pikachu woman in the forest as an encore.

I'm not very good at finishing games (though there is a lot of endgame content, I am done with the main story) so it's a real accomplishment for me. Also, apparently, J has never gotten even as close to finishing a Pokemon game, so I feel extra accomplished! I'm not someone who plays games except for, like, simulations and sandbox games AND I only discovered a love for Pokemon in the last few years. I am well pleased! Lance's Dragonite very nearly fucked me up but I soldiered through only to get similarly nearly fucked up by Jasper's Jolteon (or, rather, Jasper's near-inexhaustible supply of Full Restores).

All of this victory came at the heels yesterday of a toilet replacement. Our robin's egg blue Cold War-era toilet finally ended up getting irreparably loose from its floor mounting and was causing a leak into the unit below ours so my property manager made the call to have it replaced. I miss it a little bit. The hardware in the tank had been replaced so the flush handle didn't fit right and the seat didn't match, but it was a blue-ass toilet and that's cool. The plumber who replaced it took a photo before he removed it because it was, "the oldest toilet [he'd] seen in [his] life." So that's something. The new one is very nice, even if it is a little high for my stumpy legs.

Also I have a paid art commission! A friend of mine wants a family portrait done for her husband's birthday coming up. Said friend's husband has been battling a brain tumor for several years and every birthday is a real and profound celebration. They've got this amazing kid who has been so cool and mature about her dad's health and takes a lot of pride in helping him manage his medications since the tumor has upset some of his memory capability. They're a great family and I'm only too happy to oblige!

Tomorrow I am going to make myself to the damn post office so I can mail my mother prints of my art. I'm also mailing a few prints to a woman I worked with at my last job--she's incredibly sweet and loves my hamster paintings. The post office is not far from my apartment, I can bus to it easily, and it's been BEAUTIFUL here. So I need to be less lazy and just do the thing. My mother is worth is. My former co-worker is worth it! My desire to merge into my couch permanently is not worth it.

I went in not really expecting to want the job that much, but I left the interview really wanting the job a lot! The people there are really great and the work seems legit really interesting. I love what I saw of the company culture. Here’s hoping!

So, up until the end of October, I had a job that I really liked. The hours were good, the work was pretty chill but interesting, and the people were lovably strange. But the company decided to move our office from Seattle to Spokane, which is extremely too far to commute. Also, I'm married and my partner had recently gotten a raise and a promotion, so it didn't make sense at all for us to pack up and move so that we could live on my more modest income in an unfamiliar city.

All this means that I've been on the hunt and, god, I just DO NOT WANT to deal with it. I know that I basically live my life at a small fraction of my potential. I'm pretty ok with that, though. I like being a big fish in a small pond and I'm too much of a perfectionist/anxious person to risk putting myself in situations where I might be able to make mistakes. But there is literally no way to effectively communicate that in a way that doesn't make me sound like a 500% Bad Person: "Yeah, I know that I'm overqualified for this menial job, but I just want to phone it in and still be the best employee you have. Is that cool?"

Ugh. But what I really want is my unemployment to get approved so that I can at least have a little bit of money. We can live ok but not comfortably on my partner's income, but it's a lot less tight when I have even a little bit of something coming in. I've thought once or twice of doing art commissions, but then I run into the "I'm not good enough" series of thoughts.

No one's going to pay me to read fanfiction all day, but it would be awfully nice if they did!